ally necessarily the _highest_, though it be in the
sight of man the lowest. Immanuel, the Son of David, walking as a
servant up and down the land that was His own--The Lord Jesus, The Son
of Man, having less than the foxes or birds of the air, not even where
to lay his head,--Christ, the Son of God, wearied with His journey, on
the well of Sychar,--this has thrown a glory about the lowly path now,
that makes all the grandeur of the great ones of the earth less than
nothing. Let the light of His path shine on this scene, and no longer
shall we count it an evil under the sun for folly and lawlessness to
have the highest place, as men speak, but rather count it greatest
honor to be worthy to suffer for His name, for we are still in the
kingdom and patience of the Lord Jesus Christ,--not the Kingdom and
Glory. That shall come soon.

Vers. 8-10. But then, Ecclesiastes continues, is there complete
security in the humbler ranks of life? Nay, there is no occupation
that has not its accompanying danger. Digging or hedging, quarrying or
cleaving wood,--all have their peculiar difficulties. Although there,
too, wisdom is still evidently better than brute strength.

Vers. 11 to 15 turn to the same theme of comparison of wisdom and
folly, only now with regard to the use of the tongue. The most gifted
charmer (lit. master of the tongue) is of no worth _after_ the serpent
has bitten. The waters that flow commend the spring whence they issue.
Grace speaks for the wise: folly, from beginning to end, proclaims the
fool; and nowhere is that folly more manifested than in the
boastfulness of assertion as to the future.

"Predicting words he multiplies, yet man can never know
"The thing that shall be; yea, what cometh after who shall tell?
"Vain toil of fools! It wearieth him,--this man who knoweth naught
"That may befall his going to the city."

This seems to be exactly in line with the apostle James: "Go to now, ye
that say, To-day or to-morrow we will go into such a city, and continue
there a year, and buy, and sell, and get gain: ye who know not what
shall be on the morrow."

Vers. 16-18. The land is blessed or cursed according to her head. A
well-marked principle in Scripture, which has evidently forced itself
on the notice of human wisdom in the person of Ecclesiastes. A city
flourishes under the wise diligence of her rulers, or goes to pieces
under their neglect and sensual revelry. For the tendency to de